Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are brilliant ways for BB Companies to raise their profile. These pages and profiles act as a shop window to the world and used effectively can increase awareness, aid communications and help you to interact with the community around you.
Statistics suggest that the average person spends around 30 minutes a day scrolling through social media. If BB Companies can get themselves on people’s newsfeeds, then there is a huge potential audience out there ready to hear about how our doors are open for new members to join the adventure.
Could you utilise social media to shout about what you do and how you are making a positive difference in your community?
Below are some tips and suggestions to help you get the most from your social media profiles.
What makes a good social media page / profile?
Be Active
Regularly using your page/profile creates a catalogue of images and news that will help any interested parents clearly see what your group is about and what sort of activities you do. Over time these posts effectively become your brochure for interested new members, showing them what they can do if they join.
Use Photos
‘A picture paints a thousand words’, and this is true of social media. Posts with photos encourage far more interaction and help to show users what you have been doing. Long chunks of text are often scrolled by without people reading it. When using photos make sure they are bright, clear and of a good quality.
Be Positive
Your social media profiles are there for you to shout to the world about all the great things your young people have been up to. If your account gives off a positive vibe, then this will help your community see you in that same light.
Top Tip
Set yourselves a challenge to post after each and every activity you do.
Increase interaction and get yourselves noticed
Increasing the interactions on your profile through engaging parents, supporters and other users. These interactions are what can help you to get noticed by others in your community.
Engaging your current parents & supporters
Social media uses technology which identifies posts people are engaging with and shares them with others who may be interested. Therefore, creating regular posts on your profile that your current followers will like, comment and interact with, will help your posts reach a wider audience and hopefully attract the attention of parents of other children and young people in the area.
Encourage Sharing
One of the most effective ways for Companies to promote themselves has always been through word of mouth. Often this has been via parents talking to other parents at the school gate. Social media sites can be used to build on this and encourage parents of your young people to share any recruitment ideas you promote online.
Next time you create a post advertising spaces for young people to join your group, actively encourage your followers to share the post with their friends, thus helping to reach more people and spreading your message.
Community Pages & Profiles
Most communities will have social media accounts set up that share information for the area you live in. These community accounts are often used to promote local businesses, groups, activities and events. Try and use these profiles to help spread the message about your Company.
This doesn’t just have to be when you are trying to attract new members. If you’ve been doing something positive in your community (litter pick, visit to care home, foodbank collection) then share these stories with those accounts also. It’s good to keep up your profile throughout the year.
“We’ve found our social media page to be a real asset for the Company. It supports us in keeping our parents up to date with what we are doing whilst at the same time helps us to attract new members to our group. It’s helping us reach parts of the community we have struggled to reach before.” – Sue Padington, 22nd Northampton
Paid Adverts
If you have a small budget for advertising your BB Company, then using the ‘Boost Post’ function (Facebook) can be an effective way of attracting new members. Here is a step by step guide on creating a paid advert on Facebook. Other social media sites also have similar abilities to create paid adverts too.
Create your post
Create an image that sells your Company and decide what text you want to add with it. Remember this needs to grab people’s attention so make sure both the image and the message is attractive, but it is also to the point. Once you are happy, post the image to your profile like you normally would with any post you share. For paid adverts, any text used on the image must not cover more than 20% of the total area.
Boost
To start the boost process, click on the blue box under the post which says ‘boost’. It’s recommended to not boost the post until after 24 hours of posting, otherwise you may end up paying for interactions you would have received naturally (i.e. from your existing followers).
Choosing your Audience
Social media adverts will let you choose which demographics you wish to target. To do this select the ‘People you choose through targeting’ option. From here you can target different genders, age groups, and locations. It’s recommended to target people who don’t already ‘like’ your page.
For location, Facebook gives you the option to ‘drop a pin’ on your meeting place and the choose how wide a radius from that pin you wish to advertise. Only people within that radius will then pick up the advert, helping to ensure your money is used to target only the people who live local to your group. Other social media Companies will use a similar method to select the location you wish to target.
Who should I target?
Location: Your local area
Gender: Both
Ages: 25 – 65+Use your own experience to help set your demographics. If you tend to find in your area that parents are younger or older, then adjust who you target.
Selecting a budget and duration
Finally, you will be asked for your budget for the post and how long you wish to boost the post for. Your budget will them be spread out evenly for the duration of time you have selected. You don’t have to spend a lot to see great results! Try it out by starting with just £10-£20.
Boost, review & respond
When you’re ready, boost the post. This then goes for review before going live. During the duration of your boosted post, keep an eye on how your post is performing. You can always add more money to the post or cancel the boost altogether, depending on how you feel it is performing.
During the boosted period it is hoped your page will receive messages asking for information. Make sure you have somebody who will respond to these messages and keep a track of any new members who may be joining over the next few weeks.